The Runner: Book 1
by eastern-tennis1621
Summary: Griffin and Ben were not the only ones that went to the old Rockford house that day. Brianna Slovak, Ben's sister, also went along and, in doing that, joined the team in getting the swindled baseball card back. Griffin/OC


**Sneaking Out At Night - Helpful Hints  
**

**When lying to your parents, maintain EYE CONTACT.  
**

**Make sure to ask permission to attend the correct FAKE SLEEPOVER. (Boys - Stan Winter's place. Girls - Karen Lobodzic's)  
**

**Meet at the OLD ROCKFORD HOUSE at 8:30 p.m. Friday. (You can't miss is; there's a CRANE with a giant WRECKING BALL parked in front.)  
**

**Enter through missing planks in BOARDED-UP WINDOW, first floor, east side.  
**

**Bring your SLEEPING BAG. Remember: The old Rockford house is a CONDEMNED BUILDING that will be demolished TOMORROW MORNING. There will be no beds, no running water, no furniture, no lights, no TV...**

This notice had been given out to everyone in the sixth grade by my brother's best friend Griffin Bing. Ben Slovak, my brother, had decided to go because it was his best friend after all and it obviously meant a lot to him. I was still unsure.

"Come on, Savannah. It could be fun." I told my best friend Savannah Drysdale over the phone.

"Or we could die. And then who would take care of all my siblings?" Savannah replied.

"Last time I checked you only had a younger brother." I informed her.

"I meant all of my animal siblings." Savannah said back, to which I rolled my eyes. She takes her animals' way to seriously.

"Well it seemed like it meant a lot to Griffin. I mean he made a whole plan out of it." I took a chance to glance at the clock as I said this and saw that it was 8:00 and if I wanted to get there I was going to have to leave soon. If I decided to go that is.

"Oh you're only saying that because you've liked Griffin since the first time your brother brought him home." I had to blush when Savannah said that. The first time Ben brought Griffin home in the third grade I turned into a blushing mess and could barely say a word to him the whole time. Thankfully I have learned to control it and we are pretty good friends now. That's when I made my decision.

"Well I have to go and pack my sleeping bag. I'll call you tomorrow if I don't die. Bye." I told my best friend over the phone before hanging up. I walked downstairs and saw my mom sitting on the couch.

"Hey mom. So my friend Karen is having a sleepover tonight and I was wondering if I could go." I told my mom while getting straight to the point.  
"

Sure, honey. Just make sure to walk with your brother. He's going to a sleepover too." My Mom replied. I quickly nodded and went up the stairs only to see that my brother was eavesdropping on me and mom's conversation.

"So you're going?" Ben asked with a smirk.

"Yeah." I told him while blushing before quickly going and packing everything I needed. Ben and I left and walked to the Rockford house, where we quickly snuck in. I looked over only to see Griffin sitting by himself on the floor looking at us with a smile.

"I knew you guys would come through." Griffin told us. We all sat down and the boys talked for a bit before they checked the time and saw that it was 10:34 p.m.

"We probably shouldn't have put in the part about no TV." Ben told Griffin, who was really mad.

"I can't believe it." He told us angrily. "How could we get _nobody_? Twenty-eight people said they were coming!"

"Maybe they're just late." Ben said while trying to calm Griffin down. I just settled for putting my hand on his shoulder and rubbing it comfortingly.

"Nine o'clock is late. Ten-thirty is a no-show. Don't they have any self-respect? This is like saying it's totally fine for the adults in this town to walk all over us." Griffin was pacing right now trying to get rid of his anger.

"Come one, Griffin." My brother tried to reason. "What difference does it make if three people or three_ hundred _people spend the night in a condemned building? How does that show the adults that we're standing up for our rights? They're never even going to know about it."

"_We'll_ know." Griffin snapped. "Sometimes you have to prove to yourself that you're more than just a slab of meat under the shrink-wrap in your grocer's freezer. Why do you think I came up with the fake sleepover idea? I wanted to make sure everybody had an excuse to be here. That was the whole point behind the plan." Griffin, or as Ben calls him, The Man With The Plan, told us.

"Maybe they were just scared?" I offered.

"Of what?" Griffin challenged me. "Dust? The rain? A whole night with no TV?"

"Don't you yell at me. You should be lucky I'm here in the first place." I glared at Griffin. "Besides this place is supposed to be haunted anyways. You've heard the rumors."

"What rumors?" Griffin said while scoffing at me.

"How do you think it got abandoned in the first place? Old Man Rockford was in jail for cutting up his wife with a chainsaw - that's what Darren told me anyways." I explained. This really mad look flashed across Griffin's face so fast I wasn't even sure it was there in the first place.

"When's the last time Darren's said anything that's been worth the air it took to blow it out of his big fat head?" Griffin yelled. "He also says he's distantly related to the Rockfords - with no proof whatsoever. Besides they don't even have chain saws back in Old Man Rockford's time."

"They had railroads. According to Marcus, the real murder weapon was a railway spike pounded into her skull." Ben noted while I let out a quiet 'ew' at that. Griffin didn't buy it though.

"He's just pulling your chain. You know how he loves messing with people." Griffin told us.

"But Pitch doesn't, and you know what she heard? The house is haunted by the spirit of a dog that the old man brought home from Europe after World War One. Or maybe it wasn't a dog." I said while looking around suspiciously.

"Then what was it? A Komodo dragon?" Griffin asked while rolling his eyes at me.

"Nobody knows. But just a few days after it got to town, pets started disappearing. At first it was just little kittens and puppies, but soon full-grown Saint Bernards were vanishing into thin air. And there were bones buried all around the house - only Rockford wasn't feeding his dog any bones." Ben explained. Lightning flashed across the sky while Ben was telling his story, making me grab onto Griffin's hand in fright. I saw him blush out of the corner of my eye but I ignored it as Ben continued. "The townspeople took the law into their own hands. They put rat poison inside a big steak and left it on the doorstep. It never occurred to them that if an evil spirit could live inside a dog, it could live inside something else, too - like a house!" Ben then started to look around at the shadows on the walls, as if he expected something to jump out.

"Oh come on. There's no such thing as a haunted house." Griffin said while squeezing my hand to try to reassure me.

"Well, Marcus heard the same story." Ben said while contradicting himself. And Griffin noticed.

"No, he didn't." Griffin pointed out. "He heard the one about the railway spike."

"He heard _both_." I tried to help Ben. "And Savannah heard it too. Only in her version, it wasn't a dog. It was a baby."

"Why would the townspeople poison a baby?" Griffin questioned.

"They didn't. It got carried off by a chicken hawk. But the baby's ghost put a curse on the house to take back all the years it never got to live. There was this schoolteacher - the first non-Rockford ever to live here. No one saw her again after the day she moved in - or maybe they did. People talked about an old woman peering out an attic window. But here's the thing: That schoolteacher was only twenty-three." Wind blew three the window as Ben was telling the story. I had a death grip on Griffin's hand by now.

"No offense, Ben, but shut up. Brianna is scared out of her wits and you're starting to creep me out." Griffin said while going over all the walls with his flashlight. "See, Brianna, nothing to be afraid of. Now it's almost eleven. Nobody's coming. Gutless wonders."

"It's the railway spike." Ben said while looking around nervously. "That's got to be a splitting headache. Literally."

"Let's just try and get some sleep." Griffin said before slowly letting go of my hand. I was already sitting on my sleeping bag, which I had put out beforehand. Griffin put his down next to mine and got in. "The sooner the sun rises, the sooner we can get out of this rat trap."

"Maybe we can leave now. Nobody else came, they'll never know that we weren't here all night." Ben told us hopefully while I nodded. Griffin looked horrified at the very thought.

"You mean _back down_?" Griffin asked like he had never heard of the words before.

"I don't want my years sucked away by some baby ghost." Ben said.

"I have a lot of years ahead of me. There are so many things I haven't gotten to do yet." I added.

"There's no such thing as the baby ghost." Griffin yelled.

"Says you!" I exclaimed.

"Who says you have to believe in ghosts to be afraid of them?" Ben asked. "All right, fine. I'll sleep. But if I wake up eighty-five years old, you owe me twenty bucks."

"Deal." Griffin agreed. So we all laid down and tried to go to sleep. Griffin starts talking again. "I hope you guys know how much I appreciate this. You two are the only kids that had the guys to see it through." We didn't say anything so he continued. "I mean it, you guys. The others - thy talk a good game, but where are they? Darren dared half the sixth grade to come. Ben, he even made fun of us and said we'd wimp out. But who's the real wimp, huh, Ben?" I listened and heard Ben snoring. Of course he fell asleep. "Brianna? Are you still awake?"

"Yeah, I'm still awake." I told him while turning to face him.

"You know, I'm shocked you came." Griffin told me and I didn't know if I should take it as a compliment or an insult.

"Excuse me?" I asked in shock.

"No, no. That's not what I meant." Griffin rushed to explain. "It's just that we haven't always been the closest of friends. But after tonight, I realized something." I raised my eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. "After Ben, you have to be one of my closest friends."

"Thanks, Griffin. Because Ben is my brother I won't count him. But after Savannah, you have to be one of my closest friends too." I told him before lying on my back. "Now get to sleep. It's late and this house is creep." I could hear Griffin laughing quietly to himself.

"Night, Brianna." He said.

"Night, Griffin." I said before closing my eyes. And then I was out like a light.

_**Alright so I just decided to do this story Because I've always liked this series and I think that Griffin is pretty awesome! This is kind of just a me story so you don't have to review if you don't want to! I would appreciate it though! Hope you like it!**_


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